It’s Today! The IVF Journal is official!

by Stephanie Fry

The IVF Journal is being officially published today and I am feeling incredibly nostalgic. And grateful. And a bit overwhelmed.

To say this is a milestone moment for me is definitely an understatement! I am finding it very difficult to properly convey my emotions and thoughts on a computer screen.

Where to start?

At the beginning I guess. With a yellow legal pad.

Yes, this journey, this ride, this evolution – all started with a yellow legal pad.

I LOVE yellow legal pads but IVF is complicated so when my yellow legal pad wasn’t cutting it anymore I moved my IVF record keeping to an excel spreadsheet. And then, when there were too many spreadsheets to manage on screen, I printed them and put them into a three ring binder.

Then I really got into it. I added sections, tabs and graphics and eventually ended up with my very own IVF Trapper Keeper. Which was, in a word, awesome.

(In case you don’t know what a Trapper Keeper is here you go. Clearly mine did not have an awesome Lisa Frank-esque bubbling heart rainbow on it. It was white. Not very photo worthy. I wasn’t really advertising my infertile status at the time.)

I showed my IVF binder it to a friend who was cycling and she wanted one. So I made her a copy of all my spread sheets. And then I made another. And another. And since my constant treatment had rendered me mostly jobless and definitely aimless – I really got into it.

I tested and experimented with charts, logs and graphs. And when I was satisfied I asked a bunch of women in my support group to do the same. I wrote content and made suggestions for coping and surviving IVF. My suggestions and ideas were always open ended and customizable because I knew that the women testing the book, while all doing IVF like me, had unique and specific situations.

And then my husband drew this.

And my brother-in-law made these.

And many women ended up with this.

Now, unfortunately this wasn’t sustainable or practical. Gorgeous yes, but way too bulky for everyday use and WAY to pricey to produce – IVF is expensive enough!

So now, thanks to the amazing people at Hatherleigh Press and Random House we have this.

The IVF Journal. An 8×10 paperback, it is light and small enough to throw in your bag but large enough that you can actually write in it without your fingers cramping up after a second. It is beautifully designed and laid out but absolutely affordable, even when you are paying for IVF.

I am so happy with it!

I am so grateful.

To every one who helped, supported, encouraged, participated and walked with me on this crazy, emotional, uplifting and life changing ride, I am so overwhelmed with gratitude and awe this morning that I am at a loss for words. And for me, that is saying something!